EBay Survey Says People Buy Stuff They Don't Want

This inbox item caught my eye. EBay (EBAY) commissioned a survey on behalf of their fast growing Kijiji product (it competes with and engages in litigation with Craigslist).

The survey revealed surprising (I use the term sarcastically) facts such as:

• 90% of Americans have at least one unused item lying around the house
• Unused electronics items can be found in more than 2/3 of households (70%)
• 38% of men are holding onto old electronics, compared to 35% of women

Want to sell that junk? You won’t get much for it. The average purchase price and resale value is below. EBay turns those lemons into lemonade, though: “Although you may not get much money back in some cases, it’s better than nothing – especially in these tough economic times. And we all know how quickly the value of electronics depreciates, so those poor saps holding onto their first-generation iPhones should probably unload them ASAP!”

Get that stuff on Kijiji pronto! On a side note, I wish we had unlimited amounts of money to commission random surveys.

Original post

Comments

[redbaron:]

Only Ebay would pay money to a consultant to learn what they should already know.

2008 Aug 22 12:38 PM

[Et tu, Brute!:]

Ebay needed to be told this?!

2008 Aug 22 01:09 PM

[Ebay user 1:]

Thats our sellers fee's hard at work ... just goes to show what is running the company or should I say ruining?

2008 Aug 22 01:33 PM

[Ingrid:]

Ebay should know the basic principles of shopping
1. They have messed up their monopoly market by adding outrageous 13% fee (including Paypal fee, eBay FVF, Listing fee) in addition to those junky electronics.
2. eBay has been lying about "reduced fee" in fact it has been increased three fold since 2004. eBay Donahue things general public are dumb and don't know anything about playing with numbers, he thinks only MBA's can play with numbers and percentages.

3. Why would you pay 8-10% more to eBay and Paypal while you can get cheaper and better service from Amazon

2008 Aug 22 01:37 PM

[Fraud Watcher:]

Well, this article looks to be a mouthpiece for Ebay. The article should add that most of what goes on on Ebay is just legitimized fraud. Seller aren't telling the truth about their merchandise, and buyers aren't bidding honestly. Just stupid---Ebay is for children.

2008 Aug 22 01:45 PM

[Finito Musc...:]

Don't worry. They committed slow suicide Thursday and the NARUS are droppping like liberty. I have to find where they are going.

2008 Aug 23 02:59 AM

[David477:]

Of couse the resell value is lower. Pay $500 for a laser printer, use it for a few years, buy a new one and sell the old for $100 on ebay. Isn't that the beauty of ebay? Rather than adding to that statistic and having a bulky printer lying around in my home, I'll sell it and make 100 bucks! Sounds good to me.

2008 Dec 02 08:35 AM